Dissing Disinformation: Essays Based On Facts Work

It takes a lot of chutzpah to title a book Everything You Know Is Wrong. In truth, it's a mixed bag, composed of some stellar efforts next to screeds more appropriate from a shrill high school student. And despite the fact that the book often fails to live up to its promise of uncovering secrets and lies, it is still an enjoyable romp through the stories and events we think we know.

Everything You Know Is Wrong opens with what could quite possibly be the worst essay in the book (a noteworthy statement given that both Naomi Klein and Howard Zinn also appear), an attack on Thomas Friedman's The Lexus and the Olive Tree, and globalization in general by Greg Palast and Oliver Shykles. From there, however, the collection begins to gain some traction with only occasional missteps.

Impressive in the range of topics covered, Everything You Know Is Wrong touches on everything from the reputed murders of Henry Lee Lucas to the increasing prescription of psychiatric drugs for children. Cletus Nelson weighs in with a penetrating essay on the anti-racism industry and how it perpetuates itself with shoddy work and deliberate distortions, while Philip W. Cook writes a provocative piece about what he believes are the true facts of domestic violence that the media and activists won't divulge.

The book truly shines where it dispenses with hazy conjecture and utilizes facts to challenge the orthodox version of history. Editor Russ Kick's essays on Columbine and the warnings ahead of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are two examples.

Making use of eyewitness accounts, Kick makes a persuasive case that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were not the only two involved in the assault on their Colorado schoolmates. It's a conclusion that only fits given the illogic of accepting the belief that two students could lay out dozens of pipe bombs, plant a large propane bomb and do this in a busy school while heavily armed without raising attention until the shooting started. Similarly, Kick draws on established sources to show that al-Qaida had made it quite clear that a terrorist attack would be aimed at the United States with the World Trade Center mentioned as a possible target.

Perhaps to remedy the glaring lack of conservative authors in this book's predecessor, You Are Being Lied To, Everything You Know Is Wrong includes some authors the right can enjoy.

Libertarian Wendy McElroy, education activist John Taylor Gatto and Dominik T. Armentano, among others, make their presence felt with compellingly argued essays. Other essays should interest anyone regardless of political affiliation, such as disquieting ones on mad cow disease in the United States or who the real inspirations for Silence of the Lambs serial killer Hannibal Lecter are. You'll be happy to know that they aren't in jail.

While Everything You Know Is Wrong rarely exposes true secrets, it nonetheless boasts an interesting collection of essays that should challenge some of your deeply ingrained beliefs and illuminate subjects you may not have given much thought to.